MasterBuilt smoker temperature...too cold!

[apamburn]

In my intro post I mentioned that my wife bought me a masterbuilt smoker for christmas but gave it to me early (she swears it's for me...yeah right!).

I've used it a few times and I'm learning.

I observed a few problems with my first use of the smoker and fixed them, namely:

First, the thermometer on the door is terrible. I purchased a few oven thermometers and put them on the racks. That has helped tremendously.

Second, turns out using the grill in the charcoal bowl is actually pretty important :D. I'm doing that now.

Third, the doors leaked and allowed air in and smoke out. I used food-safe silicone to seal the doors and that is better.

Fourth, turns out that wet (or dry) wood chips burn instead of smoking when laid directly on charcoal. I wrap them in aluminum foil now (until I can get a wood chip box).

The second time I smoked things went better in almost all regards...except one.

I had difficulty getting my temps on the upper rack above 225 or so, even with bottom vents wide open.

The way I see it, I want my charcoal to burn hot enough to get way higher than 250, and I will throttle down the temperature by closing the vents. I don't want to be struggling to get to 250 with vents wide open.

The bottom rack was consistently about 25-50 degrees warmer than the top rack, I noticed.

So here are my questions:

Why am I having difficulty keeping temp up? A few of my theories:

- I started with 40 pieces of ashy charcoal. When I noticed it wasn't warm enough I added another 40 and that brought me up to temp. I think I should have started with more to begin with.

- As it got colder (probably 30s as I finished smoking the meat) I added more charcoal but I'm afraid that the ash that fell below the grate eventually blocked the air vents in the bowl which affected burn rate / temp. Is that a reasonable concern? What is there to do about it? I have considered putting an aluminum pan in bottom of smoker and cutting slits in the bottom of the charcoal bowl (charcoal sits on a grate, anyways).

Finally, RE the top rack's temp: I'm also concerned that wind could pass through the top vents and decrease temp up top. Is that a reasonable concern? I am considering cutting a chimney into the top and sealing off the side vents.

Finally, the metal is relatively thin (cheap smoker, remember?) and maybe heat is just escaping. I have heat resistant, reflective tape: would it help if I line the interior of the smoker (at least down near the charcoal) with it to retain heat? I have heard of smoker blankets. Maybe one of those?

 

[daveomak]

Try using lump hardwood buried in the charcoal...   burying it cuts off the air and it shouldn't flame.... 

Insulate...  welder's blanket should do the job...

Have you seen the expanded metal baskets folks make to hold the charcoal and lump ???  Set it up on 3" legs made from carriage bolts, nuts and washers...   that leaves room for ash to fall out and not plug the air passages....   Guys have attached stuff to the metal ash basket so they can lift and drop to remove ash...  while the smoker is closed up...  makes life easy... no heat loss...

 

[dirtsailor2003]

Couple things.

Use chunks of wood not chips. 2"-3" chunks. Depending on the length of smoke you' ll want 4-6 of them. Buried in your unlit charcoal.

No concern with wind blowing in the top vent. When smoking you want that top vent wide open. This will allow the smoke to circulate and move out of the smoker. Closing the exhaust would lead to stale smoke. Stale smoke will give the meat an acrid bitter flavor.

Some photos of your setup would be helpful in determining your temp issues. In all of my charcoal smokers I start with a full basket of fuel and use a propane torch to light. I would suggest that you read up on the minion method if you haven't already.

 

[apamburn]

Thanks for the contributions. I'll take a few pics this weekend as I should be smoking Saturday or Sunday. I'll also look into the minion method.